Freebie Friday #34: “Deep down there’s a light that never goes out.”

As my hopes are set high for Kingdom Hearts III to be released by the end of this year–no official release date yet–I’ve begun to play the series again from the beginning. In the Kingdom Hearts series, even though the newest addition has the number three in the title, this isn’t the third game in the series. Actually, if you include all the mobile games as well as the HD remakes with added footage, it’s kind like the 13th Kingdom Hearts game? Sort of?

This, of course, sounds confusing, but even with the many and varied fragmented branches that Kingdom Hearts seemed to be made up of, and no matter how convoluted some of those branches may feel (ahem, Dream Drop Distance), Kingdom Hearts resonates because it follows a very simple and yet encompassing theme: the heart.

“Deep down there’s a light that never goes out.”

Out of any thematic declaration concerning Kingdom Hearts, why choose go so broad as to say, “the connections of the heart”? Maybe that seems too generalized, and maybe we could pin Kingdom Hearts down to being a wholesome tale of the powers of friendship. Maybe we could–except, even if you’re only taking KH and KHII into consideration, you have to admit that there’s a lot more to the series than simply being a tale of friends overcoming all things.

So, yes, the idea of friendship is certainly a governing theme throughout the series, but winding the entirety of the series down to that sort of limits the emotional structure the game touches on. Friends and friendship are reiterated throughout the series not because that’s the central idea, but because it speaks to the actual central idea–the the heart, its connections, and the more existential issues behind that.

Throughout the series, Kingdom Hearts steps out of that lighthearted Disney-esque imagery and instead uses something usually wholesome–the heart–and literally creates not only its heroes from that idea but also its villains. Really, Kingdom Hearts addresses that the power of our hearts is strong, but it can fork either way.

The series rips us from absolutes, and, in the end, allows for the idea of atonement. There is no such thing as an absolute good, and there is also no such thing as an absolute evil.

This is why I love these video games. There’s a lot to it, sure, but it’s all done to explore the many realities of the heart. Kingdom Hearts offers so many great quotes concerning this theme, but my favorite comes from Sora, and is the focus of today’s free printable.